Hybrid vehicles commonly gather energy during vehicle deceleration which provides a convenient and readily available means for decreasing fuel consumption. Therefore it is useful for hybrid vehicles to determine how best to convert vehicle kinetic energy into electric energy during deceleration. Controlling the electric motor generator to capture too much energy can result in additional high heat losses in the energy storage system. Controlling the electric motor generator to capture too little energy increases total energy lost to parasitic vehicle energy losses. In either case, unnecessary waste is created that might be avoided by determining a closer approximation to the optimum power transfer for a given deceleration event. However, determining the optimum transfer power for a given deceleration event is difficult because it depends on a complex web of interrelated variables and adjusting one variable without carefully considering the effects on the others may result in unintended consequences that could negate the benefits of regenerative energy recovery altogether.